The Flash reportedly had its ending changed multiple times due to constant studio head turnover.
Before we begin, let us warn you that the rest of the article contains heavy spoilers for The Flash. Consider yourselves SPOILER WARNED.
Viewers who saw The Flash got a surprise cameo in its last scene. When Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen met with Bruce Wayne, audience members were surprised that George Clooney played Bruce in the last scene of the film. This indicates that after resetting reality, there were still some major changes the DCU timeline.
However, The Hollywood Reporter indicated that Clooney’s cameo came at the last minute. Even more amusing, the ending changed at least three different times, due to various studio regimes inputting what they wanted.
‘The Flash’ Under Walter Hamada
Initially, The Flash started production when Toby Emmerich was the Warner Bros chairman and Walter Hamada was head of DC Studios. It turned out that Hamada planned for a Flash sequel, then have a Crisis on Infinite Earths film. Similar to the famous comic book storyline, the timeline would be a little wonky with various characters ending up in different alternate universes. Due to this plan, the original ending featured Sasha Calle’s Supergirl and Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne despite the fact that their home universe is the Flashpoint universe, not the prime DCU.
‘The Flash’ Under Warner Bros. Discovery
That ending got tossed out when Discovery bought out Warner Bros. in 2022 and Emmerich and Hamada were kicked out. New Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav then installed Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were installed as the interim chairpersons and CEOs for the movie division.
Under their rule, The Flash‘s ending was tweaked. The revised ending had Henry Cavill’s Superman and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman join Supergirl and Keaton’s Bruce Wayne. This was included because they laid the groundwork for Gadot to star in Wonder Woman 3 and Cavill to be in a new Superman film.
‘The Flash’ Under James Gunn
But then came the news that James Gunn and Peter Safran are being installed as the new CEOs for DC Studios. As many DC fans already know, Gunn made sweeping changes and announced a completely new slate of DC projects. However, Wonder Woman 3 and Man of Steel 2 were not among the announcements. Because of this new change, execs felt that it Wonder Woman and Superman’s appearance was teasing upcoming movies that would not materialize.
Despite cutting the characters, executives still wanted the idea that “something was not right”for The Flash‘s ending. This led to a hail mary effort to connect with George Clooney. Fortunately, Clooney was cool with the returning as Bruce Wayne despite stating how embarrassed he is of Batman and Robin.
Does this mean that Clooney is the new Batman in James Gunn’s DC plans? Probably not. But a fun Easter egg for Batman and Robin apologists.
The Flash is now in theaters.
Source: THR.com
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